Corrugated roofing and the like



March 6,1945. R 2,370,803

L, KRONENBITTER Kan L IINVENT OR.

memd Ma. 6, 1945 CORRUGATED ROOFING AND THE I Karl L. Kronenbitter,Zanesvil le, Ohio, assignor to The American Rolling Mill Company,Middletown, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio 1 Application February. 10,1943, Serial No. 475,339

. I 6 Claims.

My invention has for its object the provision '-of improvements incorrugated roofing or siding of the usual or ordinary type. This typemakes -use of corrugated metal sheets, the corrugations being parallelto one of the axes of the sheets. Usually the sheets have a longer and ashorter dimension, and the corrugations extend in the direction of thelonger dimension. For this reason, the sheets may be said to becorrugated with longitudinal corrugations. This, however, is not anecessary limitation either on the corrugated sheets in ordinary roofingand siding, or on the structure of my invention as hereinafterdescribed. Also, the pitch and depth of the cormgations may be varied asdesired, as is also true of the usual roofing and siding. It will beunderstood that in commercial practice 'a particular pitch and depth ofcorrugation for a given gauge or'weight of sheet has come to be standardpractice and may, likewise, be employed with my invention. The sheetsthemselves are usually of iron or mild steel galvanized to increasetheir corrosion resistance; but the particular material of the sheetsis, likewise, not a limitation on my in vention any more than on theusual type of roofing or siding. Consequently, hereinafter, I shall notagain refer to the pitch and depth of the corrugations, the weight,gauge, or material of the sheets, or the dimensions of the sheetsthemselves.

In laying up ordinary corrugated roofing or siding, the individualsheets are laid in rows with side laps. Each sheet is lapped upon oneedge one or more corrugations by the next adjacent sheet, which, inturn, is lapped as to its other edge in a similar manner. The rows ofsheets are likewise lapped transversely, a row higher on the wall orroof slope lapping the upper edge of the next lower row.

In the use of such structures, which generally have been found quitesatisfactory, it nevertheless is known that their most vulnerablefeature lies in the ease with which water can penetrate a side structurewhich, while involving no extra parts and no' change in the mode ofapplication of the roofing or siding, very greatly diminishes thetendency for leakage to occur in the way described above.

It is also an object of my invention to attain a greater effectivestrength in the sheet with corrugations of the same pitch and depth, asrespects the ability of the sheet to span spaced purlins or othersupports without sag.

These and other objects of my invention, which will be set forthhereinafter, or will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon readingthese specifications, I accomplish by that certain construction andarrangement of parts of which I shall now describe an exemplaryembodiment. In the drawing, I have illustrated two corrugated sheets,formed in accordance with my invention and lapped as in a roof or sidingso as to form the structure of my invention.

Briefly, in the practice of my invention-I have found that I can attainits objects by forming my sheets with parallel corrugations, whichcorrugations, however, are not parallel to the sheet edges. In otherwords, I cock the corrugations in my sheets a slight amount relative tothe sides of the sheets themselves. The precise angularity of thecocking is not a limitation on my invention for reasons which will beapparent hereinafter; but in ordinary practice, I form my corrugationsso that they lie at an angle of about 10 to those side edges of thesheet which they would parallel in the corrugated product heretoforecurrent in theart.

As to the manufacture of sheets with cocked corrugations, as hereinaboveoutlined, the ordinary corrugating equipment may be employed lap,especially in a roof. If some object or material has collected in thebottom of a corrugation at the beginning of a lap, it can, under somecircumstances, dam up the water and cause it to rise high enough in thedammed corrugation to flow into the adjacent corrugation, which islapped by the cover sheet, and between the sheets, so that it. can dripover the edge of that corrugation into the interior of the building. Inthe warehousing of certain commodities, this cannot be tolerated; and inall types of building it is an undesirable feature.

An object or my invention is the provision or a without diflicultchange. Most corrugated sheets are formed by passing plain sheetsthrough corrugating rolls having mating ribsand depressions directedparallelto the axes of the rolls.. The sheets are presented to the rollswith a side edge parallel to the roll axes, and the ideal corrugatingoperation involves successive bending of the metal, as distinguished.from a stamping or drawing action. In the tormation of sheets withcocked corrugations, it is only necessary to introduce the sheets intothe corrugating device with a side edge successively bends the metal indifferent portions of the sheets remain the same. I am not, how'- ever,limited to any particular mode of forming corrugations in my sheets andmay employ any available corrugating apparatus.

Referring to the drawing, I have shown a sheet I, lapped by a sheet 2 atone side. Both sheets are provided with corrugations, indicated at 3 and4, which corrugations are not parallel to the edges of the sheets, norparallel to the lapped area. Instead, the corrugations approach the sideedges of the sheets and run out there, as will be apparent from thefigure. The mode of lapping the sheets, however, and the mode ofapplication of them to purlins or other supporting members in the roofor walls of the building structure are not varied. The mode of makingthe lap is, likewise, not varied; and my sheets, like those of thepriorart, are capable of being lapped greater or lesser distances by fixedincrements.

I have already indicated that where an obstruction occurs in acorrugation of the lapped sheet where the lap starts, it is entirelypossible for water to be dammed up in that corrugation to a point whereit will pass through the lap to the interior of the building. The sheetsare usually in fairly close conformation in the lapped portion. It mightbe thought that excessive water dammed up in the way heretoforedescribed might run out between the sheets in the valley of a lappedcorrugation. But to do so, it'has to pass through a long and narrowthroat between the two juxtaposed sheets, and in doing this, itencounters very great resistance. Consequently, when 'an obstructionoccurs damming up the water adjacent to a level which will permit it,the line of least resistance for the passage of water will frequently befound to be transverse the lap. The throat between the sheets in thisdirection is almost always of very much less length than the throatbetween the sheets in the directions of the corrugations themselves.

But when the corrugations are cocked, as in the product of my invention,it will be noted that the corrugations themselves run out at the sheetedges. As a consequence, if a-corrugation becomes obstructed, so thatwater tends to enter the throat between the sheets in the lappedportion, its tendency will be to run out with the next corrugation atthe side edge of the sheet below the obstruction. This will be its pathof least resistance; and the tendency of water to pass through the lapto the interior of the building is thus very greatly diminished.

It will be obvious that the sheets of my invention should be laid upboth in roofing and siding, as illustrated in the drawing, i. e., insuch manner that the cocked corrugations run out to the edge of thelapping sheet, rather than vice versa. This, however, is easilyaccomplished and becomes automatic after the first sheet is properlyinstalled, since then the remainder of them in any given rooior wallpanel must, likewise, be properly installed.

The sheets as laid in any given installation will normally have the samelength and the same width (except at the edges of the panel, where theymay be out) but whether the sheets are of the same length or of varyinglengths, where they are to be laid together, they ,are preferably somade that one corresponding corner of each sheet has a starting lip ofthe same shape.

My structure provides yet another advantage in this:.since thecorrugations are cocked in each sheet, the transverse stiffness of thesheets is improved. A direction of primary stiffness now lies morenearly on the diagonal of the sheets than in the conventional product.The direction of greatest flexibility, instead of being transverse thesheets, now lies more nearly on the opposite diagonal. Hence, my sheet,for given dimensions. for given gauge, and for given pitch and depth ofthe corrugations, when installed on the same purlins or other supports,is capable of retaining its pitch with less sag due to weight andprovides a stiii'er roof or wall panel. By the same token, the sheets ofmy invention are capable of providing equal resistance to sag orforcible deflection when laid on purlins or other supports spaced afurther distance apart.

Modifications may be made in my invention without departing from thespirit of it, as will be evident from. the foregoing explanation. Havingthus described my invention in an exemplary embodiment, what I claim asnew and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A corrugated metal sheet for laying in lapping relationship innon-horizontal roofing or siding, in which sheet the corrugations run ina direction non-parallel to both axes of the sheet and lie at asubstantial angle to both axes, and in which the corrugations are sorelated to the dimensions of the sheet that a plurality of such sheetsmay be laid in edgewise lapping relationship in a row extending in ahorizontal direction with a fixed side lap of approximately the width ofone corrugation while maintaining a disposition of the sheet ends in ahorizontal line, and with the corrugations running out to the lappingedge of each such sheet in the directionof the downward pitch of thelapped structure.

2. The structure claimed in claim 1 wherein diagonally opposite comersof the said sheet have a starting lip of the same shape.

3. The structure claimed in claim 1 wherein the said sheet has a majorand a minor axis and wherein the angularity of the corrugations to themajor axis of the sheet is of the order of 10.

4. A roofing or siding structure comprising edgewise lapped sheets, saidsheets having parallel corrugations, said corrugations in the saidsheets lying in the same direction and disposed aslant to the edges ofthe sheets whereby said corr .lgations run out at the lapping edges ofthe said sheets, in the downward direction of the pitch of the lappedstructure.

5. The structure claimed in claim 4 in which the said corrugations meetthe lapping edges of the said sheets at an angle of the order of 10.

6. A roofing or siding structure comprising rectangular corrugatedsheets, said sheets being disposed in substantially horizontal-rows,with one edge of each sheet lapping the other edge of an adjacent sheet,the rows of sheets lapping each other at their edges, said sheets havingthe corrugations therein disposed at an angle to the major and minoraxes thereof and being so laid that the said corrugations run out at thelapping edge of the sheets in each row, in the downward direction of thepitch of the lapped structure.

KARL L. KRONENBITIER.

